1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to power systems, and in particular to an hydraulic power system adapted to drive automobiles and other such vehicles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The continued increase in the use of motorized transportation, particularly the passenger automobile, has given rise to two different but interrelated problems. First, there is the excessive consumption of available supplies of energy to power such vehicles, particularly fossil fuels which are rapidly becoming depleted and which cannot be replaced. Second, there is the air and noise pollution produced by such vehicles, and the harmful effects of this pollution on the environment. Many solutions have been proposed to resolve one or the other of these problems and some of these solutions are quite effective in achieving their objective. However, the defect common to virtually all of these solutions is that resolving one of the problems merely aggravates the other. As a result, one problem may be partially solved but the other problem is increased and no net benefit is achieved. This difficulty is becoming especially apparent as automobile manufacturers are attempting to meet pollution control requirements which have been imposed by the governments in many countries, and it appears that these requirements can only be met by substantially increasing the fuel consumption of the vehicle, solving one problem but aggravating the other. A secondary difficulty with meeting such pollution control requirements is that peripheral equipment must be added to the vehicle which both increases the cost of the vehicle and decreases its reliability as well as increasing its fuel consumption.